Cate Blanchett talks about her ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ character

PTI, Aug 15, 2019, 2:39 PM IST

Los Angeles: Actor Cate Blanchett, who portrays the titular protagonist Bernadette in Richard Linklater’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”, says she agreed to the film because she wanted to explore “sense of isolation and desperation” of the character.

The film is an official adaptation of Maria Semple’s 2012 comedy novel of the same name. The story is about an agoraphobic architect and mother named Bernadette Fox, who goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Blanchett said she has tried to do justice to the book version of Bernadette.

“(She has) the need to please, but she’s also so full of disgust for the rest of the world because she’s so full of disgust for herself. Then there’s all these strange and heightened relationships that she has with the mothers at the school, with the virtual assistant, all of those quite remote and strange relationships, I thought were very important to carry through,” the 50-year-old actor said.

Linklater, the director of films such as “Dazed and Confused”, “Before” trilogy and “Boyhood”, hailed Blanchett as a “genius”.

“I always say to portray a genius, you need a genius. If you’re going to make a movie about Beethoven, the actor you get to play him better be a genius,” he said. “Most people aren’t and it never works. Bernadette, a MacArthur genius I think people believe Cate,” he said.

“Where’d You Go, Bernadette”, which also features Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig and Emma Nelson, will release in the US on Friday.